Cruel and Unusual Punishment !!!

SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - A convicted killer's execution was postponed for the second time in less than a day amid continuing concerns over the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection policy.

An hour before Michael Morales was to be strapped to a gurney in the death chamber at San Quentin Prison, officials called off the execution, saying they could not comply with a judge's recent order to have a medical provider administer the fatal dose of barbiturate.

"We were not able to find a licensed professional that was willing to inject medication intravenously, ending the life of a human being," San Quentin spokesman Vernell Crittendon said Tuesday evening.

Morales, who was sent to death row for torturing, raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl, originally was supposed to be executed just after midnight Monday. The warden had to suspend that plan when a pair of anesthesiologists who were hired to make sure Morales did not feel any pain balked at the last minute.

Both snags stemmed from a federal judge's order requiring the state to change the way it carries out lethal injections. Like 35 other states, California in the past gave its prisoners three separate drugs _ one to relax them, another to paralyze them and a third to stop their hearts.

Ruling earlier this month on a defense motion that the procedure ran afoul of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Unbelievable ... justice?? ... what a disaster. This guy needs to be 'Bubba fodder' in the Violent Psycho ward of the worst prison in the country for a few years ... then killed by a firing squad, armed with .22 shorts, or .410s with very light bird shot ... should take a few days to bleed out that way. No matter WHAT anyone does to this guy, it is not enough, justice is not done. And yet supposedly there are no medical professionals with BALLS and principles in CA who are willing to kill this POS?? ... disgusting. They ought to let the victim's parents decide how the POS should be killed ... use him for nuclear radiation exposure testing or something 'useful' ...

They should just run down to the local abortion clinic and get one of those doctors to do it. I'm sure they wouldn't have any problem killing a guilty rapist/murderer instead of innocent babies all the time.

Or go up to Oregon and get one of those euthenasia (sp?) doctors to do it.

Or let Jack Kovorkian (sp?) out of jail for a few days to get the job done...